Hitman Director on Killing Diana, Giant Chickens and Why Absolution is Built to Last

The original assassin is back, declares Hitman: Absolution’s promotional videos. It’s a shrewd statement, with the very word now forever fused with Ubisoft’s blockbuster Assassin’s Creed series. Of course, Hitman and Assassin’s Creed actually have quite little in common with each other; beyond sharing leads whose occupations involve executing people the games themselves are fundamentally different in a large number of ways.

As a device to remind you of the pedigree of the Hitman series, however, the statement succeeds. 47 has been snuffing folk out since before Altair was a twitch in Ubisoft’s loins. 47 may have spent most of this generation on the sidelines, but he’s about to be brought back off the bench.

One of the most interesting things about Hitman’s hiatus is that there’s been no real attempt by anybody to fill the vacuum. We’re at the tail end of a massive gap between Hitman games and yet IO is still coming back to a relatively empty space. In a marketplace where for every GTA there’s a Saints Row and for every Battlefield there’s a Homefront, it’s actually a little surprising. We ask Hitman: Absolution director Tore Blystad for his thoughts on the matter; why hasn’t the Hitman formula ever really been emulated?

“It is a really difficult genre to work with as there are so many challenges both from a technical and design perspective,” explains Blystad. “But it would be great to have more games closer to Hitman as we then could develop the genre faster by learning from each other.”

“We don’t have many games to compare ourselves with directly, only if we divide the game into building blocks and compare them to the competition, for instance in terms of art direction or shooting mechanics.”

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It would be great to have more games closer to Hitman as we then could develop the genre faster by learning from each other.

The time between drinks hasn’t been wasted; IO has picked up a variety of valuable lessons during the years between Blood Money and Absolution. The team has learnt a lot about player communication and player behaviour, and are far closer to the players and their experience than ever before. IO is also building levels in an entirely different way to its previous titles.

“We have learnt from experience that we need to always see the levels through the eyes of the player so for Absolution we have designed the tools to be able to play as we build the levels,” says Blystad.

The trickiest part of the process, however, has been the AI.

“The basic AI has by far been the most challenging,” says Blystad. “Every NPC is running from the same core and that just has to be rock solid to be able to support a massive game like Absolution. The AI has always been a huge challenge in the Hitman games but there are some new systems adding far greater complexity to Absolution, for instance the new AI navigation and communication, the dynamic combat AI and more logical alert propagation. It is something we will continue tweaking all up until release of the game, I’m sure.”

Part of the wrinkle is fashioning AI in such a way that it can respond equally believably to a player wading through a level guns blazing and a player taking a Silent Assassin approach to proceedings.

“One part is the actual code and logic and design behind the scenes, a whole other challenge is the timing, the locomotion and animation and the dialogue and voice acting,” says Blystad. “We have a very large and diverse cast for the game with a multitude of different character classes and they all need their own traits and features and as the game takes place in different locations the characters also needs different voice sets to fit the locations. The dynamic AI dialogue combined with the story and level specific dialogue is a staggering 2000 pages of dialogue which in itself is a challenge even to fit on a disc. In comparison a movie script is typically 90 pages long.”

Hitman, baby; one more time.

On the topic of AI we ask Blystad to elaborate a little on the crowd technology the team showcased at GDC earlier this year; how it works and what he feels it adds to the levels it’s a major part of. Blood Money’s packed streets and writhing dance clubs were stunning at the time but appear dated now. Absolution is looking to reset the bar.

“The locations of Absolution are most often civilian locations where crowds are a natural part of the setting and this is a unique opportunity for gameplay seldom seen in other games,” he says. “From a gameplay point of view crowds are working pretty close to what they do in real life. They are perfect for blending in and disappearing from enemies but if you start a fight and create a panic you quickly find yourself the centre of attention.”

“Since Blood Money, crowds have become a signature feature for us and we really wanted something special for Absolution. The main focus for Blood Money was high numbers and wow factor more than gameplay, it was technically just a huge special effect. For Absolution it has been completely rethought and every single crowd member is actually a potential regular NPC and can at any given time become an interactive character with unique behaviour. But on top of that the crowd has some crowd specific behaviour that enables actors to navigate in large masses and reaction propagation happens different from regular NPCs.”

The new tech supports crowds of up to 1200 strong, at 30 frames-per-second.

One of the best things about the Hitman series has always been the way it allowed gamers to learn from the experiences of others as much as their own, which encouraged a lot of replay and experimentation. One of the criticisms levelled at IO by Hitman’s hardcore devotees has been the focus to date on leading with more action-oriented demos and videos. Of course, stealth is a tough thing to showcase, considering it relies heavily on patience and extended moments of observation, but are we still going to be trading stories with one another about the pianos we’ve ‘accidentally’ dropped on people, the performers we’ve pushed into shark tanks and the panties we’ve poured ether on? We ask Blystad how much of this quintessentially Hitman magic Absolution retains.

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When we design the game, one question we keep asking ourselves is, ‘What will players tell each other about when they play this level?’

“When we design the game, one question we keep asking ourselves is, ‘What will players tell each other about when they play this level?’” he says. “And if our answer to that doesn’t sound cool or like there was a good choice, we will keep working on it.”

“The Hitman legacy is extremely strong when it comes to cool ‘assassin stories’ to tell, it’s actually even stronger than the mechanics themselves. Like throwing someone in their pool to be eaten by their own sharks, replacing a prop gun for a play with a real loaded gun, sniping an assassin through a Mardi Gras crowd dressed as a chicken, these are all really intriguing fantasies, and there will be tons of this in Absolution. In addition to the inherent replay value of the levels we have added a comprehensive challenge system that will entice certain play styles and hint at certain unlocks that can be achieved on the level to get even more fun out of each level.”

Thy kingdom come.

This kind of depth and replay value is one of the keys to making a single-player game that people will hang onto and play for longer, rather than play and shelve/trade.

“As developers, it is heart-warming to us when players spend months, even years with our games, clocking in hundreds of hours to find every secret and cover every inch of the map,” says Blystad. “But in reality, of course, not all players will have the time, patience or interest in going into that kind of detail with every game. Absolution is built to last for a long time for the players who want more and for a single-player game it is a major advantage to not feel finished once the game has been played through once.”

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Absolution is built to last for a long time for the players who want more.

So coming into E3 and the final phase of development we ask Blystad when he looks at Hitman: Absolution’s gestation, and what IO has crafted to date, what part of the game is he most satisfied with?

“If I ever come to a point where I truly feel satisfied about anything I do, it is probably time to retire,” he says. “I can only focus on all the million problems that we have and all the unfulfilled opportunities to create something better and more fun, a joke that could be paced better or a corner that could be lit better.”

“But if there is a thing that I believe we do quite well, it is to create diversity, and I think that what we will be showing the next couple of months will show just how diverse the game is.”

There is, however, one thing that’s been bugging us: Diana. Kicking things off in Absolution by asking players to kill Diana seems a little odd considering Diana saved 47’s life in the closing moments of Blood Money. Is IO at all concerned there’ll be a bit of resistance from returning Blood Money fans here?

“This is a central piece of the story of Absolution and we know this is a difficult topic for returning Hitman fans,” grins Blystad. “We do believe when they get to play the game it will come across differently from what they expect though and can only ask that people wait until they try it for themselves.”

Luke is Games Editor at IGN AU. You can chat to him about games, cars and Die Hard on IGN here or find him and the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.